Lightweight harness



Nov. 5, 1968 BEA H 3,408,790

LIGHTWEIGHT HARNES 5 Filed June 14, 1966 o FlG.5

United States Patent 0516? 6 Claims. cl. s4-2 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREA lightweight harness iterri formed from a strip'of thermoplasticsynthetic resin woven fabric of'substafitially uniform width folded uponitself a number oftimes to provide a plurality of plies and the foldedproduct having opposite smoothly rounded edges, said plies being securedfirmly together by rows of threads and spaced holes being formed thereinby fusion and displacement of fibers of the fabric so as not to impairthe tensile strength, and a buckle having a transverse bar and pivotedtongue thereon being connected to one end portion of said harness itemby passing the tongue'of said buckle through a hole in said item andfolding the end portion of the item upon itself and fastening it aroundsaid transverse bar of the buckle, whereby the tongue of the buckle maybe received selectively in spaced holes in another harness item forconnection thereto;

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.363,118, filed Apr. 28, 1964, now Patent No. 3,270,488.

This invention pertains to lightweight harness, and, more particularly,to lightweight harness especially adapted for horses engaged in harnessracing, but is not restricted to such use. 1

Since time'immemorial, harness for horses of all types and for all useshas been made from leather. Certain elements of harness used onso-called work horses have been made from other materials, such as woodusually reinforced with metal, metal chains, and various items of metalhardware, such as buckles, clevises, guides and loops, etc., but themajor portions of the harness have been made from leather.

In order to preserve leather harness in good condition, it must betreated relatively frequently with various types of preservingpreparations, such as oils and greases of suitable nature. Even whencare is exercised in treating leather harness to preserve it,nevertheless, it is subject to aging and natural deterioration,especially resulting from absorption of moisture, such as rain and thelike, but, more particularly, from the sweating of the animals withwhich it is used.

Another characteristic of leather harness is that, especially to sustaincertain tensile stresses to which elements of the harness are to besubjected, it is necessary to have harness elements such as traces,breast bands, saddles and girths which support shafts of the vehiclespulled by the horses, and certain other elements of the harness madefrom leather, of appreciable width and thickness. As a result, a set ofleather harness, in general, is quite heavy. Also, being susceptibletoready absorption of moisture, either from weather conditions or sweatingof the animals upon which the harness is used, such absorbed moisturegreatly adds to the weight of the harness and, correspondingly, to theload the horse, for example, must carry.

Considering particularly harness of the type used on horses engaged insulky or harness racing, also known as trotting racing, it isadvantageous to use harness as,

harness couldmaterially bereduced,especiallyby substantial fraction ofthe normal weight of leath Patented Nov. 5, 196$ gh i ta p s th eb nalin it a h rse ideally, to devote substantially allot ,its energy,v totrotting and pulling a sulky andrider around a,track,,as distinguishedfr m arrrinsdwd we gh qn body in the I form, ofv harness. Racingharness. ofathe type, com: h g ly employed in trotting racing usually,consists of such major items as a bridle, breast collar, t race s,nsaddle, girths, and lines or reins. The major portio n of, theseelements is carriedby the horse primarily inthe region of its forelegsand upon itshead. In view of the fact that a raceliorsefprirnarilyachieves forward movement through its hind 1egs,,where as his forelegsprimarily simply are for purposes of supporting its'head and forwardipor tio iiiof.'its' body somewhat tvnrbe' seen that, if theg wei gh tof racing as a prop, it

e1 harness, a horse could employ much morefof i ts energy to secureforward movement than byrconsu ih gat' least a reasonable portion ofthat energy to supporting dead weight in the form of harness,

A popular commercial type of racing harness made from leather and havingthe normal metal bracings and other metal hardware items, even thoughconsidered to be of a so'-called lightweight nature, neverthelessweighs, at the least, approximately 17 lbs, and usually more. It also ispossible for such harness to substantially double its weight whenthoroughly saturated by rain or perspiration, thereby greatly adding tothe burden which a race horse must carry as dead weight, in addition todevoting its energy to propelling its own weight and pulling a sulky andrider.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a numberof truly lightweight harness items of a strap-like nature in which noleather of any kind is employed, Rather, tensile strength primarily isaffordedby' utilizing at least 4 plies of fabric woven from syntheticresin fibers or filaments of high tensile strength and stitched togetherlongitudinally to secure the plies into" a strap-like strip andsufficiently stiff to maintain certain elements of harness madetherefrom in suitable shapes of desired form and said items beingconnected together by stitched loops and/or buckles without the use ofrivets or the formation of holes by severing means such as conventionalleather punches which cut fibers when used. 1

Another object of the invention is to minimize the use of metallichardware elements in strap-like harness items of the type referred to inthe preceding objects, such hardware being substantially entirelyrestricted to the use of metal buckles and, whereas conventional leatherharness usually has holes punched or cut therethrough which actuallysever the fibers of the leather and correspondingly reduce the tensilestrength of the leather in order to provide holes to receive the tonguesof buckles, the present invention contemplates the formation of holes inthe strap-like items to receive the tongues of buckles by deforming ordisplacing certain of the woven thermoplastic synthetic resin fiiamentsor*strands from which the fabric is woven, rather than sever them.Thispreferably is accomplished by pushing a heated pointed ele-' mentthrough the plies of the strap-like items'whichnot only rearrangescertain of the woven filaments inthe vicinity of the hole but, in theevent any limited amount of incidental severance of fibers occurs, theheated element functions to melt or fuse such fibers immediatelysurrounding the hole so as not only to preserve the longitudinalstrength of the harness element, but also provides a reinforcementaround the hole to insure permanent shape for the hole and therebyfacilitate the reception of a tongue of a buckle therethrough.

A further object of the invent ion is to utilize, in the formation ofthe various harness elements, fabric made from synthetic resin fibersand filaments" which prefer ably are inherently of a highlymoisture-resistant nature due to its having a very low coefficient ofmoisture absorption and, if desired, the ability of'theharness to resistabsorption of moisture is further implemented by additional suitablemeans. 1 i

Details of the foregoing objects and ofthe invention, as

tional view of one embodiment ofstrap-likemeans from which harness itemsare formed in accordance withthe principles of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is afragmentary perspective view of'one endof a strap-likeharness itemhaving a buckle connected thereto in accordance with thisinvention. 7

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary section of a strap-like harness item having ahole formed therein in accordance with details of the invention.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of the item shown in FIG. 4, asseen on the line 55 thereof, in exaggerated thickness.

FIG. 6 is a side elevation of a fragmentary end of a strap-like harnessitem which is stabilized by one embodiment of means comprising part ofthe present invention.

FIGS. 7 and 8 respectively are fragmentary plan and side elevationalviews of another embodiment of end structure of a harness itemembodying'the principles of the present invention. I

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary elevation of an exemplary means for connecting 2strap-like elements together by forming interengaging loops on adjacentends of the two connected elements, the ends of said loops being securedby stitching to the intermediate portions of the elements. I

FIG. 10 is an exaggerated and somewhat expanded sectional view ofanother embodiment of strap-like means from which harness items maybeformed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

Referring to the drawing, there is illustrated in FIG. 1 an exemplaryracing sulky hitched to a trotter race horse upon which is mounted a setof harness formed from elements incorporating the principles of thepresent invention. It is to be understood, however, that, while theharness comprising the present invention embodies as one of its primaryfeatures vastly reduced weight as compared with conventionalleather-type harness now in use, whereby it is particularly suitable forsulky or trotting racing horses, other types of harness may be formedfrom elements made in accordance with the present invention to providethe attending benefits. Therefore, the invention is not to be restrictedto racing harness, but is usable, if desired, at least to a largeextent, in other types of harness and especially that of a moreutilitarian nature than rac-. ing harness, due primarily to its lighterweight, greater strength and superior durability in comparison withleather harness.

The set of harness illustrated on the horse 10 shown in FIG. 1 comprisesa pair of traces 12, a breast band or collar 14, a saddle 16, a girth18, a bridle 20, lines or reins 22, a check rein 23, a crupper strap 24,shaft tugs 26 and Martingale 28. All of these elements of the set of.harness may be formed substantially entirely from mul-- sions of thesame. Certain of these items specifically comprise the subject ofco-pending applications in the namea .1 a. a. V, of the presentapplicant. Suitable types of fabrics of this nature are manufacturedand'sold under siich tradenames as nylon, Dacron, and the like.

Fabric of this type of a thickness substantially equal to that used inconventional sheeting made from cotton has a tensile strength ofapproximately lOOOlbs. per inch of width ofgsaid fabrieBy way of flir'thef example,a folded,

strip ofis'uch fria'terial lT/i' wide andflcomprisingjfi plies willsustain a tensile load of approximately 4000 lb s The cross-sectional,dimension .of such 8 ply-type; material is far less-than a strip ofconventional leather /2 wide such as used in conventional harness andhas a far greater tensile strength than such leather" strapping ofconventional harness thickness. Stated another way, in comparison fivetimes greater in cross-sectional"dimensions.

with an 8 ply, /2" wide textile fa'biiestrip whicli'will sustain atest'loa'd of'appr'oximatelly 4000 lbs., a leather strap made ofbest'grade cowhidewouldhave ftb be at least The various harness membersof the exemplary set illustrated in'F-IG. 1 may be'formed fromtextile-type material woven from synthetic resin fibers andfilaments ofthe type referred to above and folded in various Ways 'to producedifferent widths and thicknesses, of correspondingly different tensilestrengths, depending upon the size and strength required by anyparticular harness member.

Preferably to attempt to conform to the conventional appearance ofleather harness, especially as to width, it is preferred that thevarious elements of the "set of harness 'shown in FIG; '1, wherepossible, be comparable to that this application is directed asdescribed above is shown in exaggerated somewhat expanded manner-in FIG.2. This particular exemplary embodiment is of the type employing 8 pliesof-so-called tensile material, i.e., material intended to supply tensilestrength solely, but preferably also being resistant to the absorptionof moisture. A similar suitable arrangement of a band of synthetic resinfabric folded basically the same as shown in FIG. 2 but comprising onlya single thickness folded into 4 plies would have adequate tensilestrength for purposes of all strap-like elements of the set of harnessshown in FIG. 1 but the strap-like elements would not have as muchstiffness as normally desired. Hence, an 8 ply configuration ispreferred to the 4 ,ply arrangement for practical purposes.

Referring to FIG. 2 in detail, the first step in the formation of acomposite strap-like harness element embodying the. present inventioncomprises folding a band of desired widthoftextile fabric-woven fromsynthetic .resin fibers of the type referred to above once upon itselfto form 2 overlapping plies and connecting said plies firmly by parallelrows of stitching 30 and 32 adjacent opposite edges thereof. Theopposite. edges of said folded doubleplystrip are then folded equally.and transversely toward each other over .the same intermediate surfaceuntil they substantially meet. The smoothly rounded, outer folded edges34 are. secured by rows of stitches 36 and 38.-adjacent said edges. Thisprovides a 4-ply fabric strip which is then folded upon itself todispose said folded edges 34 in overlapping relationship and also forman opposite single'smoothly rounded outer edge 40. This configuration isstabilized by one or more longitudinal rows of stitches 4 2 'spac'edslightly inward from the outer edges of the laminated strap-like strip;The' thread or filament the fabric is woven so as to provideaddedtensile strength and desirable stiffness coupled with appropriateflexibility The illustrationof afolded and stitched configuration oftextile fabric, laminated strap-like harness element in FIG. 2 issomewhat diagrammatic in order to simplify the illustration. Itwill beunderstood that when the fabric is stitched as illustrated, all of theplies will be compressed into very close and compact relationship witheach other, whereby the exemplary products shown fragmentarily in FIGS.3 and 5-9 nevertheless will be relatively thin and, under normalconditions, less than 4;" thick. Such product thus will actuallycomprise at least 4 plies of tensile textile fabric and if such plies,for example, are each /2. in width, the composite element will sustainat least 2000 lbs, which is far more than required, for example, forlines or reins employed in racing harness, yet is far less in weight.than conventional leather reins or lines of standard size-and quality,as well as being far greater in tensile strength than such leather linesand other strap-like harness elements.

Another advantage resulting from forming harness members in the mannerillustrated in FIG. 2 lies in the fact-that .all of the.cut,- raw edgesof the tensile textile fabric material are disposed inwardly of thecomposite product and only smooth, rounded edges are present on theexterior. of the product. '.In order to preserve the full tensilestrength of the harness member, such as either of the strap-like harnessmembers 44 or 46,,especially whan-forming holes. therein to receive thetongues of.buckles,andthe like, for example, one advantage offered bythe present invention with respect to. the use of preferablythermoplastic textile fabric tensile members or means is that, ratherthan form holes therein such as by conventional punching or cutting oftextile fabric, which decreases the tensile strength, the woven natureof the textile fabric permits the fibers. or filaments to be rearrangedor displaced by projecting a preferably pointed tool therethroughto forma hole 48 by pushing aside, as itwere,the warp and weft fibersorfilaments illustrated somewhat diagrammatically in FIG. 4. I

When forming holes such as the exemplary hole 48 in the variousstrap-like harness elements contemplated by the present invention by themeans and methods described immediately above,.the rearrangement of thefibers and filaments of. the woven textile material is accomplishedsubstantially without appreciable rupture or severance of any of saidfibers or filaments. However,to further insure substantially noweakening of the tensile strength of such harness members incident toformingsuch holes therein and also to stabilize the holes,v it ispreferred that the holes be formed by pushing a heated pointed toolthrough the assembled plies of textile fabric in the various harnessmembers. By such means, in the eventany of the fibers or filamentsshould become ruptured or severed, the heated tool will effect at leastlimited melting of the fibers immediately surrounding the hole andthereby restore the fibers ,or filaments which possibly have becomeruptured or severed into a continuous structure which is stable whencooled. Further, such heating of the rearranged or reshaped fibersimmediately surrounding and defining the holes causes them to assume apermanent set, when cooled, and a thickened reinforcing enlargement 50is formed adjacent one or both surfaces of the harness members 46 and48, as shown in exemplary manner in FIG. 5, thereby stabilizing theshapeof such holes.

Such holes primarily are used to accommodate the tongue 52 of a buckle54, for example, as shown in FIG. 3. The tongue 52 is pivotallyconnected to the transverse bar 56 on buckle 54. Holes formed inaccordance with the manner described above operate satisfactorily withminimum wear being sustained by the perimeters of the holes. In additionto forming holes 48 for receiving the tongues 52 of buckles 54 or thelike to mount or connect the buckle to the harness item, it also is tobe understood that any of the harness elements which are to be connectedto said buckles in adjustable manner likewise may have a series ofspaced holes 48 formed therein, by the method and means described above,for cooperation with one of the buckles 54 and receiving the tongue 52thereof through a selected hole 48 of the strap-like'harness element.Under such circumstances, a suitable fabric loop keeper, not shown, isprovided to receive the terminal end portion of the harness itemprojecting beyond the buckle.

Forming the strap-like harness items described hereinabove from textilefabric woven from thermoplastic synthetic resin fibers or filamentsoffers no disadvantage in forming stabilized ends on the various items.Several exemplary embodiments are shown in the drawing. For example, inFIG. 6, the laminated item 46 or 48 may be finished at the end 58 simplyby pinching it between a pair of nipper blades, preferably heatedsufficiently to fuse and stabilize the filaments, thereby providing arelatively rigid and durable end structure which is inexpensively andquickly formed.

Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, the end 60 of item 44 or 46, which is buttshaped, simply is severed from stock or by trimming excess lengththerefrom by a sharp blade and then engaging said butt end with a heatedplate or blade to fuse and stabilize the filaments and solidify the endsurface effectively and durably, quickly and inexpensively, withoutfurther finishing being required.

A slightly different embodiment of forming an exemplary harness element46 from textile fabric of the type described above is illustrated inexaggerated, expanded manner in FIG. 10. In this arrangement orconfiguration, a single band of such textile fabric of desired width isfolded upon itself once so as to superimpose the opposite raw edges 62thereof upon each other to form a double ply arrangement and then securethe same together by a row of stitching 64 shown in exemplary manner inFIG. 10. The opposite folded edge 66 is secured by another row ofstitching 68. Said double ply arrangement is then folded upon itself toform 4 plies which arrangement is stabilized by .additional rows ofstitches 70 and 72 respectively adjacent opposite edges thereof. Thestitched edges then are both folded inwardly upon the remainder of the 4ply ar-, rangement, from opposite edges thereof, substantially intomeeting engagement and the resulting edges are stabilized by rows ofstitches 74 and 76 adjacent said edges which are well rounded, foldedsurfaces.

The foregoing 8 ply arrangement then is folded along its median lineinto the fina-l configuration shown in FIG. 10 and such assembly, whencompressed, is fixed in permanent shape by a pair of single or multiplerows of stitching 78. An arrangement of this type will have 16 plies andthe-thickness thereof is approximately thereby being substantially equalto average strap-like items of a set of conventional leather harnesswith comparable stiffness and shape retention and desired flexibility.Width for width, it will have twice the strength of item 44 and may beused in situations where such greater strength is desired or required.

Further, an exemplary manner of connecting two straplike elementstogether, in accordance with the present invention, is illustrated inFIG. 9 wherein it will be seen that similar interconnected loops 80 and82 are formed simply by folding each strip-like element 44 or 46 uponitself and the ends are secured respectively to said elements byappropriate stitching 84 rather than rivets which would require severingthe filaments by cutting rivet holes in the fabric. Similar stitching 84may be used to form loops of the elements 44 or 46 around the buckle bar56, as shown in FIG. 3.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the present invention providesvarious embodiments of strap-like elements and connecting means thereforwhich may comprise various items in a set of lightweight harness. Theseelements are composed substantially entirely of multi-ply fabricarrangements, the fabric being formed preferably from synthetic resinsuch as nylon, Orlon, or the like. Strips of such material are folded inany of several desired configurations described above and secured inpermanent form by appropriate stitching or the like. Harness made insuch manner is extremely light in weight, especially compared withconventional leather harness, such harness is highly resistant toabsorption of moisture so that the weight thereof is not increased toany noticeable extent when contacting sweat upon an animal or duringinclement weather, and the tensile strength of all elements of theharness is far greater than comparable leather elements of conventionalharness. As a result of using harness of this type, a horse can applysubstantially its entire energy to forward movement as distinguishedfrom having to support a substantial amount of dead weight as whenfitted with conventional leather harness, even of the socalledlightweight type.

Particularly by eliminating substantially all metal elements from theharness, with the exception of buckles, and especially by eliminatingthe metallic reinforcing elements, guide rings and hooks normallyemployed in conventional leather-type saddles, the total weight of acomplete set of harness is reduced from at least approximately 17 lbs.or more, which is the weight of conventional leather harness, to lessthan 4 lbs. when not including the weight of the metallic bit on thebridle in either of these total weights.

While the'invention has been described and illustrated in its severalpreferred embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is notto be limited to the precise details herein illustrated and describedsince the same may be carried out in other ways falling within the scopeof the invention as claimed.

1 claim:

1. A lightweight harness item of a strap-like nature fabricated fromtextile fabric and said item being arranged to be interconnected incooperative relationship with similar harness items, said strap-likeharness item comprisng a band of fabric woven from thermoplasticsynthetic moisture-resistant resin fibers of substantial tensilestrength, opposite edges of said band being folded upon the centralportion thereof in overlapping relationship to form a plural paralleloverlying ply assembly and said assembly being folded substantiallyalong the central axis thereof upon itself to form a finally foldedassembly of twice as many plies as said overlying ply assembly and allbeing of substantially even width, whereby opposite edges of saidfinally folded assembly comprise smoothly rounded folded edges, saidfinally folded assembly of plies being permanently stitched togetherwith threads of synthetic resin material in close overlappingrelationship by rows of stitches respectively adjacent the oppositeedges of said assembly and said harness item having holes formed thereinbetween the rows of stitches at predetermined spaced locations bydisplacing fibers of each ply and fusing the same to form said holeswhich have a permanent set a buckle having a tarnsverse bar thereon anda tongue pivotally connected to said bar, and said harness item havingan end portion folded around the bar of said buckle and reversely uponitself and secured together to form a loop, thereby to secure saidbuckle to said straplike harness item and each loop having one of saidholes therein position to receive a tongue of the buckle, said tongue ofsaid buckle also being receivable selectively in spaced holes formed inanother of said strap-like harness items for connection thereto.

2. Lightweight strap-like harness items according to claim 1 in whichsaid holes have relatively rigid boundary surfaces stabilizing the samefor the reception of the tongue of a buckle.

t 3. Lightweight strap=likeharnessitems accordingto claim 1 in which theends of said strap-like item are fused to stabilize the ends of thefibers of the plies thereof exposed at said ends and thereby preventravelling thereof.

4. Lightweight straplikefharness items according to clairri linwhich'said threads of-said stitches are formed from thermoplasticsynthetic-resin substantially of the same type as that from which thefabric is woven -but,.of a heaviemgauge/ than thefilaments-"ofsaidfabric.

5. The lightweight strap-like harness item according to claim 1 furthercharacterized by the band of fabric from which said harness item isformed being sufiiciently wide to permittlie same tobe folded into alaminated harness itemhaving 8'plies .andawidth substantially equ l to asimilar conventional harness item formed from leather, said harness itemcomprising a band of fabricinitially folded upon itselfsubstantiallyevenly, to form asdouble ply band and the opposite edgesthen being foldedtinwardly upon the same surfaceof saidbandsubstantially into abutting relationhip to form a band of 4 plies havingsmoothly folded outer edges, said last-mentioned band being evenlyfolded upon itself to form a laminated straplik'e striphaving 8eplies ansmoothly rounded opposite edges, and said rows of stitches extendingalong said strip adjacent said opposite edges to secure said pliesthereof in fixed laminated relationship and thereby. render said stripsufiiciently stiff to be capable, ofsustaining itsshape when mounted inoperative position upon a horse or similar animal in a set of harness. Ij t v 6. The lightweight strap-like harness item, according to claim 1,'furthergc haracterized by said band ,of fabric from which said harnessitem is formed being sufficiently wide to permit the same to be foldedinto a laminated harness item having 16 plies and thereby having a thickness and width closely resembling the thickness and width of similarconventional. harness items formed from leather, said harness item,comprising a band of fabirc initially folded upon itself substantiallyevenly to form double ply band being folded evenly upon itself to format opposite edges thereof 'to stabilize the same and said double plymand being'fglded evenly upon itself to form a band of 4 plies,additional rows of stitches extending therealong adjacentthe oppositeedges to further stabilize the same and the opposite edges of said 4 plyband both being'folded inwardlysubstantially evenly upon thesame surfaceapproximatelyinto abutting relationship to provide similar smoothlyrounded outer edges also having stabilizing rows of stitchesextendingtherealong to form a laminated band of s plies; said latterlaminated band being folded upon itself substantially along its medianto dispose said rounded edges innermost within a straplike harness itemcomprising l6 plies of said fabric which are secured in said finallyfolded assembly by saidrows of stitches which extend through all saidplies adjacent the outer edges thereof to provide suitable stiffness andshape retention resembling that ,of conventional leather harness itemsof similar width and thickness.

References Cited Cuttler 2-322 HUGHR. QHAMBLEE, Primary Examiner.

